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Jay to have shoulder examined in St. Louis

Jay to have shoulder examined in St. Louis

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PITTSBURGH -- Outfielder Jon Jay left the Cardinals on Sunday to return to St. Louis, where he will undergo an MRI as part of a reexamination of his right shoulder. Jay, who is nursing a sprained right shoulder, was experiencing more soreness on Sunday.

"I didn't hear that he was worse today. I didn't hear that he was better today," manager Mike Matheny said, attempting to characterize the setback. "I think it was a situation where they weren't that excited about where he is right now."

Jay had been encouraged by his progress since Thursday, when he jammed his arm into the center-field wall in an attempt to make a catch. Jay came out of that game, and his only appearance since came as a pinch-runner on Saturday.

Jay resumed some light baseball activities on Saturday and was scheduled to take batting practice and test his arm throwing on Sunday morning. Despite a setback in the progress, Matheny didn't rule out Jay rejoining the team on Monday in Chicago. He also did not make the assumption that this means Jay is headed for the disabled list.

"Everybody is still optimistic," Matheny said. "It sounded like they were hoping he'd be a little further along than he was, and to just make sure they didn't miss anything, [we wanted to] get him back home and looked at by our guys again to make sure he is where he should be."

Jay, who has never been on the Major League DL, already had X-rays on his shoulder. Those came back showing no structural damage.

With Jay unavailable on Sunday, the Cardinals were forced to play with a short bench. Matheny did, however, have the benefit of having Skip Schumaker available again. Schumaker passed all the tests he needed to to assure Matheny that his side soreness had subsided. Like Jay, Schumaker had exited a game after running into the outfield wall.

"I felt better today," said Schumaker, who delivered a pinch-hit single in the ninth. "I feel like I'm good enough to play. If I wasn't, I would tell them. I'm not in a spot where I want to jeopardize a really good team, especially with a short bench as it is."